Women’s Eight (W8+) – Final

There was no doubt who the crowd had come to see. This regatta in the United States had saved the best race for last as lining up was the United States women’s eight. They have not lost a major race since 2006 and had built up such a legacy that they seemed unbeatable. But at this regatta the US crew had been beaten and sitting in the favoured lanes were New Zealand and Romania. Romania took off at 50 strokes per minute with the fastest pace. Romania had dominated this boat class before the US took control while New Zealand has been building up since making the Olympics for the first time in 2016 in this boat class. Romania had the lead at the first 500m mark with the British in second. But there was nothing in it as these six boats seemed in a virtual line.

New Zealand, coxed by Sam Bosworth, now did a push and got into second, albeit only just. Bosworth is part of a new 2017 rule that allows males to cox a female boat. Romania continued to hold the lead as they moved to a 41 then 42 stroke rate. New Zealand then got overtaken by Canada who were rating 38 then 40. New Zealand fought back and there was nothing between these two crews, the silver medal would be decided on the surge. Romania had broken the 11 year winning streak by the United States. Canada had grabbed silver by 0.18 of a second and New Zealand had the bronze.

Results: ROU, CAN, NZL, USA, GBR, NED

Adelina Bogus, Laura Oprea (s), Daniela Druncea (c), Romania, gold
“This is a dream come true to win here in America. We’ve always dreamed of doing this. The next years look promising.”

Kristen Kit (c), Canada, silver
“We stuck to our race plan and this was an amazing race for us. Normally we have a lot of girls to choose from, but this season we only had eight girls and we just made it work. We are very, very, happy with this result.”

Emma Dyke (s), New Zealand, bronze
“IT was very good racing out today in this field. But the conditions were really tough. We had a very solid race throughout the middle thousand and just had to hold on to that at the end. This is a really good result for us.”

B-final

In the repechage earlier in the week, Russia finished ahead of China. The Russians took an under-23 bronze earlier in the season and this young crews look like it may be going places in the future as they led the way over China to finish seventh overall in the world.

Results: RUS, CHN